B2: Croatia 2 - 1 Germany - 12/06/08

[Trim]

Ballack Rues 'Bitter' Defeat

Germany captain Michael Ballack has admitted his team fell victim to their own hype as their EURO 2008 campaign suffered a significant hiccough against Croatia last night…

The Germans were unanimously tipped as Group B favourites to take the title after their opening 2-0 win against Poland earlier this week.

Croatia, by contrast, came into the tournament with the tag of dark horses but failed to impress during their scrappy 1-0 win over co-hosts Austria.

However, the Vatreni got their campaign back on track with a memorable victory against der Mannschaft, running out 2-1 winners in Klagenfurt thanks to strikes from Darijo Srna and Ivica Olic.

Ballack is hugely disappointed with the result, confessing that he and his compatriots were complacent and under-performed across the board.

"Perhaps we thought we had already achieved something," said the former Bayern Munich midfielder.

"We played poorer in all areas. We knew we were up against tough opponents so that surprises me. It's bitter."

Goal.com - Euro 2008 - Ballack Rues 'Bitter' Defeat

[NJ10]

Very surprised at both Germany's ineptness and Croatia's effervescence. Croatia were excellent from the word go. Rakitic bossed the game in the first half and played some lovely passes, Kranjcar could have sewn the game up himself in the first half. I dont particularly rate Srna & Olic but they played well, and Corluka & Pranjic at full back were outstanding. The more i see of Corluka, the more i am impressed. I'd like him at Liverpool.

Germany were shite for the most part, Gomez was so bad it was untrue, and Klose wasnt much better. Though the service into them was partly to blame, it wasnt until Schweinsteiger came on that there was any real threat from wide. Podolski needs service as well, and used wide on the left he was getting none. Ballack didnt have a good game at all, his frustration was clear in the amount of fouls he conceded, Fritz was ineffective in the first half and Lahm was kept busy by the Croatian wingers.

Odonkor- I'm sorry. I have only seen him play a handful of games, but I genuinely think this is the worst German international I have ever seen. The man has no football ability, no brain and is a charlatan. Surely there must be a better wide midfielder in the Bundesliga than this joker. I was shaking my head in disbelief when he was brought on before Schweinsteiger, and the disbelief continued as i watched him play. Terrible.

Jansen- the commentators were constantly on his back, and to be fair he had a shocker of a half. But he was often left 2 v 1 against Corluka & Srna, which can make any full back look daft. I dont think having a striker on the left of midfield helps him at all, and he lacks the recovery powers of Lahm to get him out of jail. I guess he will be dropped for the Austria game.

Lehmann- I really dont blame him for the 2nd goal. The cross took a hellish deflection off Podolski, and skidded off the turf at some pace, if his luck was in he would have turned it against the outside of the post and behind, or the rebound would have fell to a defender, but it was one of those games and it landed straight at Olic's feet. He made some good interventions before and after that.

Should be a great atmosphere for Austria v Germany, winner takes all!

[LaVecchiaSignora]

i just had a chance to watch the game on my dvr but wow...i think this is a bigger upset then the holland italy game...germany cant be to worried because they will still probobly move on, but what a shocker.

Podolski is a great player though, that goal was impressive most people would either miss it, only get a peice of it or shoot it 300 ft over the goal..impressive strike.

Croatia won on a lucky goal, but a goals a goal

[Dellas]

Not devastating that you lost just means that you guys will probably play Portugal earlier than you anitcipated.

[kyan]

Great game, I think Bilic is probably the best manager at the Euros.

Croatia deserve most of the credit rather than the Germans just playing poorly, they had a game plan and stuck to it perfectly, they were quite comfortable in the lead as well.

Olic deserved that goal however fortuitous it was for the sheer amount of running he's done over the last 2 games...

[Trim]

Analysis of the German team

How many crosses did Marcell Jansen have in Croatia's penalty box? How many shots did Torsten Frings have on goal?

Jens Lehmann:

Lehmann stopped four of six balls in his goal; he knocked the ball away three times.

Of his 15 throw outs and punts, eleven found their way to teammates - a rate of 73 percent, which was much better against Poland (94 percent)

The goalie touched the ball 32 times - two more than in the opening match.

Philipp Lahm:

Lahm won all nine of his one-on-ones for the ball. With a success rate of 95 percent in duals, he is Germany's best player in one-on-ones in the EURO 2008.

He had the most ball contact of any player in the match against Croatia (110).

He had the most crosses by far (nine), yet only two found teammates.

Per Mertesacker:

"Merte" had the least one-on-ones for the ball for the German side. As against Poland, he had two and won both.

In the opening match, he didn't miss on any passes. This time he had five (a rate of 9.4 Prozent).

Per Mertesacker has yet to commit a foul in this EURO.

Christoph Metzelder:

The interior defender had two shots on goal - no other player on Löw's team had more. But "Metze" also failed to score in his 43rd international match.

He intercepted three balls and had 7 clearing actions. His pass success rate was an astounding Seine 92 percent.

Metzelder had significantly more one-on-ones for the ball (twelve) than against Poland (two), and his success rate was much better. Against Croatia, he came out on top in 2/3rds of his duals.

Marcell Jansen:

His rate of failed passes was 30 percent, the highest for the German team.

He had four crosses in the opponent's penalty area, two which found teammates.

Jansen had only one clearing action against Croatia - against Poland he had to do more defensive work (nine clearing actions).

Clemens Fritz:

Fritz had fewer one-on-ones in his 82 minutes against Croatia (twelve) than in his 55 minutes against Poland (18).

He had only one cross and was unable to shoot on goal or set one up.

While the Bremen player had the most dribbling and solo runs in the opening match (seven), he only had three yesterday, but was successful on all of them.

Torsten Frings:

Frings had the second most one-on-ones for the ball for the German team and won 62 percent of these duals (vs. 89 percent against Poland).

The Bremen player had one shot on goal and set up another.

Only one of his four crosses found a teammate.

Michael Ballack:

The captain had the most fouls of any player in yesterday's match (five).

Ballack shot twice on goal and set up another three, giving the most goal shooting action of any German player.

Lukas Podolski:

"Poldi" added one goal to his tally against Croatia and remains the only scorer for the German team.

In his 50th international match, he moved up to tie David Villa for the most goals in the European Championship (both have three).

Podolski had two shots on goal and set up another. But he had significantly less ball contact against Croatia (69) than in the opening match (81).

Miroslav Klose:

Klose had only one shot on goal, which was blocked. That result meant he had less offensive action than interior defender Christoph Metzelder, who shot twice on goal!

He had ball contact only 31 times, less than Bastian Schweinsteiger (32 times), who was on the pitch for 66 fewer minutes.

Klose displayed better dualing ability for the ball, winning four of his five one-on-ones (80 percent). Against Poland, he only had a success rate of 20 percent, with twice as many duals.

Mario Gomez:

Gomez possessed the ball yesterday on average only about every 2.6 minutes. In the opening match, that figure was significantly higher (every 1.9 minutes).

The Stuttgart player had only four one-on-ones and won none of them.

Like his striker partner Klose, Gomez had only one shot on goal (wide) and was unable to set up any further shots. He was offsides more than any other teammate (three times).

David Odonkor:

Odonkor was a non-factor after being subbed in (0 shots on goal, 0 set ups).

Neither of his two crosses found a teammate.

In his firt EURO appearance, he had significantly less ball contact (29) than Jansen (50), whom he replaced.

Bastian Schweinsteiger:

He saw the first red card in stoppage time of any German player in a big tournament in the past ten years.

In his 24 minutes of play, he had two shots on goal (no German player had more over the entire course of the match).

Schweinsteiger had five dribblings or solo runs, the most on Löw's team. His passing was also dead on. Almost 94 percent of his passes reached their intended target, the best rate for the German starting line-up.

Kevin Kuranyi was not included in the analysis due to the briefness of his appearance.

Bundesliga - Die offizielle Webseite

[__-SNAKE-__]

This has been the shittiest match Germany played since Euro 2000 against Portugal and Euro 2004 against Latvia.

[kyan]

Originally Posted by __-SNAKE-__

This has been the shittiest match Germany played since Euro 2000 against Portugal and Euro 2004 against Latvia.

I'm sure you can think of worse

[__-SNAKE-__]

Ah right, you mean Germany 1-5 England, you're right, (thanks for the bad memories) but I do also remember Germany winning the last ever match England played in the Old Wembley 1-0 Dietmar Hamann's free kick.

But I was talking in a major competition finals like this, not including Qualifying.